The distinctive plays and films of Mike Leigh have introduced many strong female characters to audiences down the years. In fact, the director has often returned to work with a small group of actresses whom he can trust to create memorable roles – Alison Steadman, Sheila Kelley, Lesley Manville and Imelda Staunton.

But this year, as he works on a new play for the National Theatre, Leigh has found a new star – the daughter of one of his funniest muses.

Ruby Bentall, whose mother is actress Janine Duvitski, will have a lead role at the National in the new play, which so far has no name or an announced subject, but will be written and directed by Leigh. Bentall is already known to viewers for playing Minnie in BBC1's adaptation of Lark Rise to Candleford and now joins a fresh generation of actors invited to work with Leigh to create a script.

"I have now done quite a lot of comedy," said Bentall, 22. "It is not something I like particularly more than anything else. It just seems to come naturally."

At least Bentall knows what to expect from Leigh. In contrast, when the 25-year-old Duvitski walked nervously into an audition with the director in the late 1970s, she was unnerved to find she was expected to develop the dialogue for a new television play.

The play Duvitski went on to help devise was Abigail's Party, one of the best-loved and most regularly revived comedies of manners.

"I wasn't much older than Ruby when I was doing Abigail's Party," said Duvitski. "I was 25 and really didn't know what I was letting myself in for."

Duvitski took the role of the nurse Angie, a gauche newlywed guest at a drinks evening held by her aspirational neighbour, Beverly, played by Steadman. During the drama Angie not only has the chance to display her questionable nursing skills, but also gets some of the best lines in the script. Her reference to a "leather-look" sofa and her rendition of the childish song Buy a Broom have gone into theatrical folklore.

"I am thrilled Ruby is doing this play with Mike. She's seen some of his stuff and she's aware of the way it is made," she said. "I found it very difficult to explain the process to her. At least when she went to the audition I was able to tell her some of the things that might happen, even though I was remembering from 35 years ago!"

Since appearing in Abigail's Party, Duvitski, 58, has appeared in comic roles in dramas and sitcoms, including Dennis Potter's Blue Remembered Hills, Jack Rosenthal's The Knowledge, Waiting For God and One Foot in the Grave.

"Before Abigail's Party I was doing kitchen-sink drama, but I have done a lot of comedy ever since," she said. "I have no idea what I do in terms of being funny or comic timing. I don't know if Ruby is the same. She does get lots of laughs, though. One thing I do know is that if you're doing something with Mike you have to go with the process. I also think Mike is quite likely to be relieved that I am not saying too much to her."

Leigh sets out without a script and his ideas for character and plot come from his work with a cast. Duvitski is sensitive about accusations that his plays make fun of the people they portray: "People have said he is sneering. I don't think we ever intend to do that. I love the fact that Mike puts real faces on the stage or on the screen. Real women's faces."

Leigh is fascinated by people, Duvitski thinks. When he interviews an actor for a job, she recalls, he wants to know if he can get on with them and will ask about their childhood. Bentall, whose father is actor Paul Bentall, enjoyed her audition: "I had an idea what might happen and I'm glad about that, otherwise I would have been completely thrown."

Bentall will star in the new play alongside regular Leigh collaborator Lesley Manville. "That is quite strange too," said Duvitski, "as Lesley is my best friend really and was at Ruby's birth. She came with a video camera to film it."

Bentall, who lives with her parents in Holborn, central London, has no doubts about her place on the stage.

"Right from the beginning there has never been anything else I've wanted to do. When they weren't working, my parents used to go off to the theatre, and it was clearly one of the most enjoyable things anyone could do."